Tim Cook

It’s Monday, June 13th and Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is about to kick off with the company’s opening keynote and press event at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET.

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Earlier this week, Apple continued to climb the Fortune 500 ranking to 3rd, and now Glassdoor’s annual CEO ratings have been released with Tim Cook moving towards the top. Last year, Cook barely cracked the top 10 and was ranked 10th, but this year he’s moved up to 8th.

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Update: I referred to the rather misleading headline the Guardian had chosen, and Segall has now posted on his own site that “the Guardian chose to give it a click-bait headline that contradicted my point of view.”

Ken Segall, the former Apple ad consultant who coined the iMac name, wrote the copy for the famous ‘Think different’ campaign and authored the book Insanely Simple, says that Apple is beginning to lose touch with its heritage of simplicity. He gave his assessment of Apple’s ‘state of simplicity’ in a piece for the Guardian.

Though Apple’s customers remain fiercely loyal, the natives are getting restless. A growing number of people are sensing that Tim Cook’s Apple isn’t as simple as Steve’s Apple. They see complexity in expanding product lines, confusing product names, and the products themselves.

While the Guardian‘s headline makes the piece seem entire critical, it’s actually very balanced …

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[UPDATE: Video embedded below.]

Tim Cook featured at StartupFest this morning, in an interview with Neelie Kroes discussing Apple’s influence in startups and entrepreneurship culture. Cook covered many topics including the role of entrepreneurs and the App Store, the startup climate in Europe, economic optimism, technology in education, Apple Watch and more. We’ve included some snippets of the talk below …

In the interview, Tim Cook says Apple gives entrepreneurs the ability to sell their app instantly worldwide through the App Store. Apple provides technical and marketing assistance to clear the path so the developer can focus on their product. Most young companies should be principally focused on the product; Apple tries to help ease the frictions to fuel more entrepreneurs to do exactly that. Apple is bringing an app development center in Naples to kickstart the app economy in places it hasn’t yet been.

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In this week’s top stories we break down the latest iPhone 7 leaks, the new iTunes 12.4 release, Tim Cook’s trip to India & much more. Head below for the usual roundup of handy links to all of this week’s most shared stories:

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Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for an extended interview with NDTV while in India this week and in it discusses the latest on Apple Pay negotiations, bringing Apple retail to India, and discussions with carriers and government officials while visiting the country.

While noting several large investments Apple is announcing in India, including the opening of a new development office that will create 4,000 jobs and a new accelerator program for app developers, Cook also confirmed talks with Indian banks for Apple Pay and much more:

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In between announcing a new development office that will create 4,000 jobs in India and meeting with local iOS developers, Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted visiting a film set before partying with Bollywood celebrities at an event reportedly hosted by Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan this week.

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Photo: Eric Risberg/AP Photo

The Economic Times reports that Tim Cook is meeting with the heads of major carriers in India in order to form ‘strategic partnerships’ as the country accelerates its LTE rollout. The smartphone market in India has so far been constrained by slow data speeds in most parts of the country.

Cook has said the advent of high-speed 4G networks in India will expand the market for iPhones, flagging elsewhere, making it a key market for the company.

Cook is said to be meeting with Bharti Airtel, the largest carrier in the country; Reliance Jio Infocomm, which plans to roll out LTE services nationwide this year; as well as Vodafone and others …

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Tim Cook and Prime Minister Modi at their previous meeting in Silicon Valley

Tim Cook, who is currently in Beijing, is headed on to India tomorrow, reports Reuters. Sources say that he is due to meet with Prime Minister Modi, who he last met in September back in the US (above).

Apple chief executive Tim Cook will visit India this week and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the second leg of his Asian tour, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the company seeks to revive sluggish iPhone sales.

One item on the agenda is likely to be India’s reported rejection of Apple’s request to sell used iPhones in the country …

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As reported earlier, Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting Beijing, China this week. The earlier Reuters report suggested Cook was intending to talk with government officials about company matters amidst increasing tensions between the country and Apple, following trademark disputes and the ban on iTunes Movies and iBooks content.

On Monday, though, Cook met with Chinese app developers at an Apple Store. The talk was hosted by Jean Lui, president of taxi company Didi Chuxing, of which Apple has invested $1 billion dollars. A plethora of Chinese app publishers were in attendance, including a Groupon-esque clone ‘Meituan’,  photo app MeituPic, news provider Toutia.com, cooking app DayDayCook and game developer Tap4Fun (via CNBC).

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In this week’s top stories: Tim Cook hints at a “can’t live without” feature for iPhone 7, we detail Apple Music’s upcoming redesign planned for iOS 10, and the latest round of iPhone 7 reports.

And other top shared stories include Apple’s announcement of a new enterprise-focused partnership with SAP, news of a couple high-profile hires and departures from the company this week, and much more. Head below for the usual handy links to all this week’s top stories and videos:

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Tim Cook is no stranger to conferences and keynotes, and later this month the Apple CEO is set to appear at the first Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam. Cook will open the event as its keynote speaker on May 24th, followed by appearances by other big names including Google/Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt, Uber’s Travis Kalanick. Google and Apple-partner IBM are among Startup Fest’s sponsors.

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In a TV interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer this week, Cook said the iPhone 7 will have a killer feature that would prove to be an upgrade customers won’t be able to resist. “We are going to give you things that you can’t live without that you just don’t know you need today,” Cook teased.

Could it really be something we already know about? Could any of the rumored features for the device possibly fall under the groundbreaking or irresistible category of features Cook hinted at? Perhaps the new rumoured dual-camera system could be enough to account for Cook’s comment? Of course, it’s also possible it’s all just post-Q2 PR hype after a quarter of declines. Will Apple have something new and exciting that we don’t yet know about for the iPhone 7?

That’s the question we ask readers in today’s poll. What rumoured new feature for iPhone 7 will make it upgrade worthy for you? Or will Tim Cook and Co need something beyond what’s expected to get upgrade numbers it didn’t get in 2015 with the 6s update and this year with the iPhone SE?
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After focusing on Apple’s second quarter earnings and the subsequent reaction by Wall Street in the first part of his interview on CNBC’s Mad Money, Apple CEO Tim Cook got a little more personal in part two. During today’s portion of the interview that just aired, Cook talked about his personal motivation for creating products, as well as people he looks up to and more.

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[UPDATE: Video below.]

As expected, Apple CEO Tim Cook this evening appeared on CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer to discuss the recent news surrounding the company’s second quarter earnings results. The company reported $50.6 billion in revenue and $10 billion in profits, but its stock was sent into spiral. Speaking to Cramer, however, Cook defended Apple’s future and called Wall Street’s response a “huge overreaction.”

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Apple today has spoken out against a controversial new bill in Mississippi that was signed into law by the state’s governor earlier this week. House Bill 1523 is spun as protecting religious freedom but has been criticized for enabling LGBT discrimination. Apple today has joined a variety of technology companies in voicing its opposition to the law.

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